”Teamsissa ei koskaan kohtaa käytävällä ketään” : Digitaaliseen kommunikaatioon liittyvät työn vaatimustekijät ja niiden hallinta asiantuntijatyössä

Communication is an essential part of expert work, accounting for a significant proportion of working time and affecting factors such as the fluidity of workflow and the achievement of goals. The development of information and communication technology, coupled with the spatial and temporal dispersion of work, has made digital communication (i.e., technology-mediated communication) the predominant mode of communication both in the workplace and in remote work. Given the significant role of digital communication, it is important to identify the job demands related to it. Job demands are aspects of work that require continual effort and may pose a potential risk of strain. Previous research on digital communication-related job demands has been fragmented. This dissertation contributes to the field by examining digital communication holistically, rather than focusing on individual communication tools. The dissertation aims to analyse, through empirical research, what kinds of digital communication-related job demands experts identify, how they experience these demands, and what kinds of practices they have developed to manage them. The dissertation consists of four articles. The research is qualitative in nature, and it draws on social constructionism and pragmatism. The research aims to produce not only descriptive results but also normative results and actionable knowledge. Empirical data were collected between 2015 and 2023 through individual and group interviews, workshop discussions, and open-ended survey responses. All materials were analysed using inductive content analysis. The dissertation contributes to the research tradition of working life studies, particularly in the context of knowledge work, and is connected to broader research on wellbeing at work, as well as more specific research areas such as technostress and information ergonomics. The key job demands relating to digital communication that were identified in the results were digital communication intensity, limitations of digital communication and the lack of organisational support. Digital communication intensity refers to the large number and diversity of communication events, the multichannel nature of digital communication, the pressure of constant availability, and the management tasks involved in handling digital communication. The limitations of digital communication describe the reduced richness of interaction experienced, as well as the tonal and interpretive challenges associated with digital communication. Insufficient organisational support encompasses the lack of assistance when adopting and using communication technologies, and the lack of tools that facilitate digital communication. The practices developed to manage digital communication-related job demands fell into two categories: regulating communication volume and timing, and developing communication quality. Strategies to regulate communication volume and timing included limiting the number of messages within the organisation, establishing shared rules for using digital communication channels, creating practices that support uninterrupted work and implementing a system of prioritisation. Strategies to improve communication quality focused on ensuring regular communication, expanding the content of digital communication, adapting communication modes to objectives and preferences, and making versatile use of digital communication tools. The results suggest that the experience of job demands and their management is affected by the dynamics between the abundance of digital communication and its perceived qualitative shortcomings. The key empirical contribution of the dissertation is the creation of a holistic, contextually grounded understanding of digital communication-related job demands and management practices in expert work. In terms of theory, the research contributes to the field of wellbeing at work in the context of digitalisation by drawing on the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model, as well as on approaches from technostress research and information ergonomics. These approaches are refined in relation to the job demands and their management associated with digital communication